


Already There

by ElopeToTheSea



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Subways, Trains, kinda based on the song?, seriously its just roxas angst with axel being there to help him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 05:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20558999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElopeToTheSea/pseuds/ElopeToTheSea
Summary: Whenever you feel lonely, there's always someone there to help you out.





	Already There

The echo of a long-forgotten melody traveled through Roxas skin. A familiar sense of longing, feeling more akin to that of a dream than a known memory. Like dancing underneath, the ocean, his senses were those a helplessness of a drowning man. All muted. All bleak. All too distant to quite grasp, much less understand.

The signs that passed before him, were faded in hues of blue and grey. It was all…muted. And in all honesty, he finds himself unable to remember the world being different than this. More than the monotony of the moving subway, or the familiar sound of music through broken earphones.

Nowadays, the only thing that shone brightly was the screen of his cell phone. Brightening up at a few messages, he couldn’t always answer.

He tried to keep his eyes opened. To stop the drowsiness that swallowed him in a second of solitude. But the more time seemed to tick by -the longer he had to wait for the stop to bring him closer to the end of the world- he realized it was a lost battle. He was tired, after all. Of all the fighting, the apathy, the feeling of inadequacy in his own home.

He tightened his hold on the red backpack he always had by his side and closed his eyes.

The sting of a burning bruise in his face made it difficult to erase the past. He wished he could cry. At the very least, that’d be helpful. That’d be a sign that things were bad. That he had let himself be engulfed by a tormenting life. It’d be a sign he was alive. That he was more of a puppet for people who didn’t care.

His phone vibrated. Like it had for the past hour or so he had spent on the train. He no longer bothered to look at what the incoming message had to say. If the past ones were any indicator, they were only things better left unseen. Unsent. Unread.

The subway stopped once again. People coming in and getting out. Some were giving him side glances, suspiciously eyeing him like he was some kind of criminal. And perhaps, he looked like one. In his hurry to leave home, he had only grabbed his backpack and the old black hoodie he couldn’t bear to leave behind.

Axel had given it to him, after all.

The bright red dot on the top of the dashboard blinked. Only two remained. A few more minutes – a few more seconds- until the train was completely empty, and he would be forced to leave.

He was far from home. So far away he doubted his mother would find him. Or his father, for the matter. The only one who could know would be Xion, and she’d die before spilling his secret.

Another ping from the phone. A different sound. An awful, silly ‘it's_ me Mario_’ that made him both cringe and let out a laugh against his will. Axel had insisted on him personalizing the sound and while Roxas _hated_ it, he could never bring himself to change it back.

He unlocked the phone, reading the messages with the only light coming from obnoxious fluorescent lights in the subway. If he felt himself smile, he wouldn’t acknowledge it.

[heard what happened from xi]

[where r u]

The messages read. It was the only thing written because it was the only thing that needed to be said.

[none of your business]

[its my business when you haven’t returned my DS game]

[i don’t have your stupid ds game lea]

[ask xio for it]

There wasn’t an immediate answer. Roxas was lashing out. And it wasn’t Axel’s fault. It was pointless, he knew it. Stupid even. But he couldn’t help it.

He was part of the reason why he got in a fight with his dad, in the first place.

But if given the opportunity to take the words back, he wouldn’t. Just the memory of his dad insisting Axel was bad company had him clenching his fists, ready to bite out the same words he had said before.

This time, the phone rang. For a moment, Roxas wondered if he shouldn’t answer. Ignore Axel just to be petty and angry at the world.

But he couldn’t. No matter how much he tried -and he’d tried- nothing would stop Axel from being ignored.

He picked up.

“You’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met,” Roxas hissed.

“No need for flattering, _Ro_,” he said immediately after, with a chuckled laugh. Roxas groaned, absolutely hating the nickname Axel used when he knew Roxas was beyond pissed. “Where are you, _sweetcheeks_? I don’t want you dying on me.”

“Why should I tell you?” Roxas asked. The train stopped.

Roxas wasn’t so sure now if he wanted to get off the subway now. Maybe he should take the route back home and hang around Hayner’s place. That’d be fun.

“I bought ice cream,” Axel replied. Roxas could hear his hideous grin from the phone, and he loathed that he smiled at how good the sound of movies, ice cream, and Axel was. “Sea Salt.”

“Do you ever buy anything else?” it was rhetorical. They both knew the answer was no. He let out a long sigh, as he got out of the wagon. “…I’m at the station.”

“_Which one_?” Axel asked.

“Shut up. You know which.”

He swiped his card to get out of the place.

Twilight Street’s. The same street Axel would see him off when Roxas had to stay at his place. It was probably five blocks away from Axel’s apartment. It’d take the guy a few minutes to reach it.

Five max. Depends on how long it took Axel to get ready. Roxas walked out, feeling the last bits of sunlight hit him in the face, as he climbed the stairs towards the main street.

“Yeah, I know,” Axel said from the other side of the phone. Just as Roxas got out he was met with the familiar sight of obnoxious red hair, and a K-mart bag.

Axel was there, sitting on the bench just out of the subway. His phone held up by his ear, and a soft smile on his lips. The kind of smile that made Roxas heartbeat and his whole face flush. And at that moment, the world was finally bright again.

The tears that began to spill, as he stayed still sobbing loudly with the phone against his ear.

Axel continued to smile, gentle as always. Reassuring, familiar. It made Roxas sob louder. He said something, a whisper, that would have been missed if the phone wasn’t still turned on.

“I’m already there.”

**Author's Note:**

> so, a while back i wrote this story for my creative writing club. and i kinda liked it? so i decided to polish it a bit. becs of the nature of the activity i couldn't make it longer, but i dont feel like it needs to be longer. 
> 
> the prompt was simply this song named "already there" by the verge. it had a very melancholic feeling that made me think of subways and roxas, thats why i wanted to write something like this. 
> 
> it helped me feel better, yknow? kinda cathartic. i want to write more stuff like this, so maybe i will...
> 
> anyways, if you like what i write you can follow me on twitter @sailorsoriku


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